Comments

Thanks to all the people who have posted comments so far. I really appreciate it. To answer one of the questions, I have a few ideas of what I might write about next. Since it has started snowing already, I would like to see how Krakow copes with the change in weather. How do people react, how does the transport system react etc. Coming from a country where the trains stop working when it rains, it will be interesting to see how a country with more extreme weather copes. Also, if anyone has any suggestions or ideas of things I could write about then let me know. If you are Polish and would like to hear the opinion of a foreigner on some aspect of Poland, let me know. If you are non-Polish and would like to know something about Poland, please let me know. I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully I will have something ready soon.

ps. If you know someone who might be interested in reading this blog, please let them know.

thanks/ dzienkuję

Polish Roads!

As I have said before, the best thing about my job is that I get paid to have conversations with people. Now this isn't always thrilling work but sometimes, when you have an interesting student, it can be really interesting. Today was one of those days! My student today was a forensic expert, his specialty being road accident scenes. This being his area of expertise, it seemed only natural to talk about roads with him. Perhaps you are thinking, how can you have an interesting conversation about roads? Well you have obviously never seen Polish roads. If you ask Polish people what the worst thing about Poland is, most of them will reply "the roads", and they are correct. In short, Polish roads are terrible. Most roads are in a terrible condition, sometimes with huge potholes, and there is a serious lack of motorways.

To put the situation in context, it is estimated that to connect all the main cities in Poland requires 18, 036 km of motorways and dual carriageways. Currently Poland has only 673 km of motorways and 230 km of dual carriageways. This means that most of the roads in Poland are small, two lane country roads. On these roads huge lorries transporting goods from Western Europe to Russia must travel along with ordinary cars and buses. The result of all this, is a lot of traffic accidents.

Last weekend was a holiday weekend (for the day of the dead) and the roads were extra busy with people going home for the weekend. The last figures I saw put the number of people killed in traffic accidents last weekend at around 70, with the number of injured much higher and the number of accidents higher still. Poland has a population of around 34 million, much lower than that of the UK. Can you imagine if 70 people were killed in traffic accidents in one weekend in the UK? This phenomenon of increased traffic accidents is not limited to Poland. When I was living in Spain I observed exactly the same problem. At the time I found it really strange, because in fact the Spanish news was predicting before the weekend even began that there would be a high number of deaths. They were resigned to the fact that a lot of people would die and were saying that if the figure remained below 100 then it wouldn't have been that bad!! To me and to many other people from the UK, this is completely bizarre. To have so many fatal accidents on the roads is not common.

When I asked my student today about the problem in Poland he agreed it was a huge problem and, without my prompting or asking him, told me that the UK was actually the safest country in Europe for driving. His reasons for this were threefold. Firstly, he explained that roads in the UK are better designed and structured. Secondly, he said the driving culture in the UK is different from that of Poland. People are not always trying to overtake on small two lane country roads. Off course there are some idiot drivers in the UK who will, however in Poland it is much more common for people to do this. The reason for this, is a lack of motorways. People are frustrated at having to travel everywhere by small, winding roads and to save some time they overtake and speed. I'm not condoning speeding at all but to put it into to context, to travel from Krakow to Gdansk ( a distance of 612 km) by car takes around 12 hours due to the roads. The third and final reason why the UK is safer than Poland, and this will not please liberals or Jeremy Clarkson fans, is because of the high number of surveillance equipment. In Poland, it is not common to see a speed camera, in fact I have never seen one. People speed because they can get away with it. In the UK people are worried because there are speed cameras everywhere and although this may annoy some people ,who would either wish to speed or are convinced of some government conspiracy to monitor them, it actually saves lives and that's according to the expert not me.

So what can be done about the Polish road situation? The record of Polish governments on this issue is not good. Between 1990 and 2001, only 138 km of motorway were built and only 33 km of dual carriageway were built. In the year 2004, only 67 km of motorway and 8.8 km of dual carriageway were built. There are however plans to build a lot more and with Poland hosting Euro 2012 in only 5 years time, this process will probably be sped up. It should certainly be the main priority of any Polish government. If any government can improve the roads, they can be assured of everlasting popularity.

The Day of the Dead

No this post isn't about a horror film I went to see but is in fact about a Polish national holiday! The first of November is the so called day of the dead because on this day Polish people visit the graves of their dead relatives and leave flowers and generally remember the dead. In fact this isn't exclusively a Polish event, it's a catholic event celebrated in other catholic countries, but Poland being a staunchly catholic country it is taken very seriously here.

My day of the dead started in frustrating fashion. Forgetting it was national holiday, I went to the local bakery to find it closed. In fact everything was closed. It was also the first day of a new law passed by the Polish government making it illegal to work on this day, unless you are self-employed.

In the course of the day I visited 3 cemeteries. Outside each cemetery the flower and candle sellers were doing good business as people bought items to leave on the graves of their relatives. Inside each cemetery it was hard to move due to the amount of people moving around and standing by graves. The best way to describe it is that it is like being at 200 funerals at the same time. It also has a funeral atmosphere about it, with many people wearing black and visibly emotional.

Cemetaries can tell you a lot about a town/country and it's people. The first, obvious thing that Polish cemetaries tell you is that Poland is very much a catholic country. Every grave without exception had a catholic cross on it. In one of the cemeteries a mass was being performed and the graves of the dead were being blessed. The second thing that cemeteries can tell you is the wealth and status of a person. There were graves that clearly belonged to wealthy people, with their big marble headstones, and those that clearly belonged to poor people, sometimes with just a wooden cross and some dirt.

For me the day was interesting and a bit of a novelty. I didn't know any of the people buried at any of the graves we visited and therefore had no reason to feel sad but i appreciate that for some people it is an important event and that for anyone wishing to know a little more about Poland it's a worthwhile exercise.